Austin Real Estate Blog

South by Southwest tix are highly coverted from coast to coast and from Film geek to music geek to computer geek!

The 24th annual South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals at the Austin Convention Center will showcase the finest in film, music, and interactive media from March 12th through the 21st. In keeping with Austin’s tradition of originality, the conferences and festivals focus on independent artists and films and offer a valuable first venue for aspiring musical artists and young filmmakers. Sponsors for this year’s festivities include the Independent Film Channel, Monster Energy, Chevy, Pepsi/Mountain Dew, and the Austin Chronicle.

The South by Southwest Conferences offer participants an outstanding opportunity to network with those in their chosen fields and to learn valuable skills through discussion panels and celebrity interviews in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. The keynote speaker for the Music Conference will be the great Smokey Robinson, one of the most influential musicians of all time. The Interactive Conference focuses on the best in website design, video games and internet start-ups, making it a must-see for would-be Web millionaires. Ben Huh, the innovator behind sites like I Can Haz Cheezburger and LOLcats, will be on hand to discuss techniques and methods for achieving internet success as the featured speaker for the “How to Rawk SXSW” panel.

The film festival usually gets most of the attention for its diverse selection of films, ranging from headliner events like “Get Low” with Robert Duvall and Bill Murray and “Cyrus” with John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei to documentaries like “Rejoice and Shout,” a moving exploration of gospel music. International films from Belgium, Israel, Ireland, Denmark, and many other countries will also be showcased at the South by Southwest Film Festival. One highlight is sure to be the presentation of “Hubble 3D,” a breathtaking look at the spectacular galaxies as viewed through the Hubble Telescope and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. “The Lost World,” a silent science-fiction film from 1925, and Tod Browning’s “The Unknown” will also be shown during the festival. Short film categories will include animated shorts, documentaries, experimental short films and high school shorts created by Texas teenagers for presentation at this elite venue. Music videos will also be presented, showcasing a full range of musical stylings and artistic visions.

Attendees will participate in a wide range of panels, discussion groups, and meet-and-greet opportunities with some of the biggest names in film, music, and interactive technologies. When the day’s work is done, guests of the conferences can drink and dance the night away at numerous parties with many of the same celebrities they worked with during the day; the South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals offer the best of Austin nightlife to guests at this exclusive event. For more information or to sign up for one or all of the conferences, visit http://sxsw.com/.